Alma Thomas seems to have been an altogether admirable person. She was born of well to do (not rich) parents who made sure that she got a good education. She found what she cared about and worked her life in the field, mostly as a teacher. She worked with poor children through her art. She graduated from Howard and Columbia and supported herself financially for her entire lifetime. On retirement she focused hard on creating her own art, and was quite productive after the age 65.

I am not a very good art critic and much of modern art leaves me cold, all except the very best of it, which I find quite exciting. Most of it seems derivative of a few great trailblazers, which can probably be said of nearly all art at nearly all times.

My guess is that most of what she did was derivative. She was a trailblazer in living but not in art. I think this is enough to get her displayed in the White House, if that is what the Obamas want to do. It's unfortunate that one of the paintings they selected was so obviously copied with minor alterations from someone else. It seems to me that Alma Thomas deserves a better reputation than that.

Now that's a lovely photo, it is, and your post processing touches are incredible. Irving Penn had nothing on you.

But I'm a little bit sad, just a little.

Some schwein hund prankster douchebag thief stole my welcome mat last night. And it was a nice one too. Dark tan with a Greek key pattern border. It was the sort without words that could just as easily be used inside or even in the bath. ( I already have those but I want to keep one outside too )

So tomorrow I'll buy another and in heavy black magic marker write on the bottom

YOU'RE A CU*NT

SO ARE YOUR PARENTS WHO FAILD YOU SO MISERABLY:-(

Or maybe I'll just dye my own address onto the top surface with lettering to match the border.

Or maybe I'll electrify it so when it's lifted it releases a burst of electricity like a flash unit except through embedded open wiring, burning the hands of the hapless thief.

Perhaps a simple circuit that when broken screams like a banshee, in the fashion of an ordinary window alarm.

Or maybe I'll affix a slightly enlarged convex clear cover over the peephole in the door which I never use anyway to make it appear like a camera lens when really it's just a fake out piece of plastic. (Twenty-somethings I'm assuming they're the pranksters, can be rather thick and easily fooled.)

Or maybe I'll just replace it and shut up. Maybe with two, one in storage so when the next one is stolen It'll be immediately replaced without another thought. Maybe I'll just keep buying them in pairs like that and put a new one out every time one is stolen like a perplexing continuously reproducing welcome mat regenerator. How odd that would be to walk by the place where you just stole a welcome mat to see a new one sitting there as if you never stole it, with the same message on the bottom, if you bother to look, calling you an exceedingly rude name and impugning your parents. That would be kind of fun, actually.

A dozen years ago, I worked with a woman who divorced her husband because his personality had changed. As she saw it, the more Rush Limbaugh he listened to, the more mean-spirited he became, till she finally could not stand being married to him any more.

I confess to knowing who Alma Thomas was before this week, and even being aware there was a controversy about "Watusi." But I further confess not knowing it'd come up again until I saw a tweet in my twitter feed. And even then, I confess, I probably wouldn't have clicked over had I not already been contemplating the whole "Ronald's burgers in the Louvre's bowels" thing, and therefore been thinking of Da Vinci's thoughts.

"A dozen years ago, I worked with a woman who divorced her husband because his personality had changed. As she saw it, the more Rush Limbaugh he listened to, the more mean-spirited he became, till she finally could not stand being married to him any more."

Ya know, this is believable. Most people rely on dumb sources of news, and when they break into the other point of view, it's like a dam breaking. It's really frustrating at first. You learn to develop a sense of humor, or you get really angry. At least that's how I envision it for many people who find Rush, listen for the laughs, and then learn a bit.

It's beautiful that the NYT and Rush, both aggressively partisan, are able to reach millions. But it's a shame people get so unhappy if they realize the world isn't what they thought it was.

I could name a few anecdotes about democrat whackos I know, for example an MLK party I realized I was attending when my die hard democrat pals started passing around watermelon, 40s, and KFC. But both sides have their whackadoodles. Rush is not a proxy for whack or anger, but I bet a lot of people go through an adjustment period when they realize just how severe the nation's situation us. If they can't deal with it, I think that's gotta fuck up a marriage.

I confess I saw "Rocky Horror Picture Show" multiple scores of times before I got a job at a theatre cleaning up after midnight showings of "Rocky Horror Picture," after which I saw it more scores of times, though not as attentively, or at least not in the same way.

So it goes.

I like this version of the confession thing and therefore will not only not overstake, but will wait, encouragingly and eagerly, for others' takes.

David, your story about Alma helped her reputation in my eyes. It's cool to use derivative art.

I think it's a huge shame that she'll probably wind up being known as a trivial footnote in this presidency, and that her most famous work may always be this Matisse thing (which most folks will think is crap... justifiably).

She sounds like a really cool person, and I guarantee someone could have bothered to find an example of her work that was brilliant. Hell, that moon landing Van Gogh painting would have been very patriotic to hang in the white house.

The FRB in Denver bought two of my paintings when I worked there. They were totally derived.

Fresco. Watercolor on plaster. Broken, antiqued to appear as if they were ripped from ancient walls then attractively mounted against flat black, double or triple matted.

One was a replication of the famous vignette of three female musicians found in the tomb of Nakht. Google that and you'll see hundreds of them.

The other one is even more famous, the geese of Meidum, thought to be the oldest fresco known. The original frieze has six geese two are colorful and four are dull brown. Once you see those two colorful geese, you see them everywhere, and I mean ev. ry. where.

True story: * points *

An executive secretary saw one that I brought in to show my co-workers. She told the senior vice president he should buy one. Like Obama, it was up to him to buy some art each year and he had a soft-spot for artists because his brother was an artist. (He painted geese used on US stamps). Anyhoo, he bought two of my paintings and had them hung in a meeting room. I became a little bit famous from that because they wrote me up in the house organ as well as the district one. Every time I was in a meeting in that room which was often I was so distracted by my own art that I had trouble concentrating. I kept thinking, "MAN, that's good." I painted the full six geese again for another person who had seen a different painting of mine. This one is six feet longbut it's still dwarfed by the wall in the home where it's hanging.

See what I mean? Derived. All the art I sell is based on the ancient Egyptian style.

It was for significant international diplomacy accomplishments. Nominations were due Feb. 1, so that was two whole weeks of accomplishments!

The Obama lovers are having a O'gasm.

The waves of ridicule have been unleashed.

Popular RT on Twitter on this top trending topic: anyone notice the irony of this award on the day when we bomb another planet for the first time in history? What did the moon ever do to us? We are the aggressors.

The cutoff date for nominations was on the 1st of February - so with less than two weeks into his presidency and no accomplishments at all the Nobel Peace Prize committee considered him a worthy nominee. What a joke.

I'm laughing that the best defense Obama supporters could possibly give for this farce nobel award is to sarcastically bark 'How bad for our country!'

it's not an award to the USA. It's the exact opposite. It's an award for a USA that operates under the wishes of Europe, according to the Prize committee. It's a highly partisan, and particularly bitter and aggressive award.

Most Obama supporters are smart enough to laugh at this. The idea that Obama gets honors he is unqualified for, has a lot in common with Jimmy Carter, and the world thinks Obama makes America weaker, is greatly bolstered by this. Kaus says he should decline. I don't think he should do that, but I also don't see how this doesn't hurt him. People will implicitly ask how it's fair Obama gets this, for less than 2 weeks of work as president, and the real heroes, for example Hu, who has led a fight for freedom in China and is rotting in prison, are passed over.

I confess that I'm troubled by this. I look at what this prize used to mean, before Bush was elected, and it's really unfortunate how Bush derangement has changed so many institutions.

But trolls have an excellent weapon now. They can instantly get under my skin just by bringing this up... that will probably work for years. Another confession.

...and for these, and all my other unrecollected sins, I am truly sorry.

O my Althouse, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, not just because I dread the loss of heaven (a page level mention) and fear the pains of hell (banishment), but because they offend Thee who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly intend, with the help of Thy grace, to amend my ways, to sin no more, and to avoid the near occasion of sin.

So Althouse, grant me absolution and tell me how many Hail Marys are my penance.